Invenstigators Find Milwaukee Voucher Schools Violating Law
State action is urged to protect students' rights
From the People for the American Way
An investigation into the admissions procedures and other practices of
a number of Milwaukee private and religious schools that receive publicly
funded vouchers has uncovered serious, persistent violations of students'
rights under the Wisconsin voucher law, People For the American Way Foundation
and the NAACP Milwaukee Branch revealed today (August 23, 1999).
Investigators found that some schools are violating the state's voucher
law by:
- Charging illegal fees to voucher students.
- Engaging in improper screening and selection of applicants
- Violating students' right to religious freedom by actively discouraging
parents from opting their children out of religious activities.
As a result of their findings, PFAWF and the NAACP Milwaukee Branch are
today filing a formal complaint with the state's Department of Public
Instruction, urging the agency to take prompt remedial action to protect
students' rights.
"Children who try to enter some private and religious schools as
voucher students are finding the admissions process stacked against them
and others are being told that they have to check their rights at the
door," said PFAWF President Carole Shields. "Wisconsin public
officials should move immediately and firmly to correct this abuse of
the public trust."
The investigation was conducted this spring by the Metropolitan Milwaukee
Fair Housing Council, the independent agency that investigates and monitors
compliance with civil rights laws. The Council's trained, highly experienced
testers spoke with representatives from a sampling of the schools that
are currently participating in the voucher program and also obtained written
information and admissions materials.
The illegal practices found by investigators are detailed in a letter
to John T. Benson, Wisconsin's superintendent of public instruction.
The schools cited in the letter are: Blessed Trinity Catholic School,
Marquette University High School, Saint Sebastian School, Nazareth Lutheran
School, Saint Joan Antida High School, Urban Day School, Oklahoma Avenue
Lutheran School, Saint Alexander School, and Saint Vincent Pallotti School.
Under the law, voucher schools are required to select voucher students
at random, to accept the voucher as full payment and not impose additional
fees, and to respect parents and students' rights not to participate in
religious activities.
Among the violations found by the testers are:
- Marquette University High School violates the law's random
selection requirements, offering admission only to voucher students
who pass an entrance exam and other academic scrutiny.
- Blessed Trinity Catholic School requires parents to sign a
"Parent Commitment Statement" as part of the student's application,
pledging that the child will participate in daily classroom prayer,
religion classes, and prayer services and promising to assume the role
of religious educator by sharing faith in the home. Parents must also
agree to do fundraising for the school and to "volunteer"
20 hours of work to the school.
- Oklahoma Avenue Lutheran School ignores students' legal right
to opt out of religious activities. The principal told the tester who
called him about voucher student admissions, "If you don't want
your children to take part in the religion, our school's not for you.
It's a Christian education. That's what we're about."
- Saint Alexander School also violates the opt-out right, telling
the tester that children would have to go to church and perhaps sing
but not take part in the sacraments.
- A number of schools, including Marquette University High School,
Nazareth Lutheran School, St. Joan Antida High School, Saint Sebastian
School, and Urban Day School charge voucher students extra fees
- such as application fees - forbidden by the voucher law.
- The Catholic Saint Vincent Pallotti School told a tester who
said her family is not Catholic that her child would have to participate
in all the religious activities and services. If she insisted on opting
her child out, she was told, her child might have to sit in the hall.
In addition to detailing the unlawful practices found by the testers,
the complaint also cites some of the same schools and identifies additional
ones whose enrollment periods are so early in the calendar year or so
abbreviated that they strongly suggest that these schools are tilting
their admissions process to favor selected students such as their parishioners.
These early or short enrollment periods tend to benefit these students,
who are most likely to know the schedule, thus effectively giving admissions
preference to them rather than genuinely offering openings randomly to
any voucher student in the city, as the law requires. These schools include:
Marquette University High School, Mother of Good Counsel School, Mount
Calvary Lutheran School, Notre Dame Middle School, Our Lady Queen of Peace
School, Pius IX High School, Saint Margaret Mary School, Saint Paul Catholic
School, Saint Vincent Pallotti School, and Saint Philip Neri Catholic
School.
Posted August 23, 1999